Paul Ryan tells conservatives 'we can't get rattled' by Obama

Washington, D.C. -- House budget chair Paul Ryan told a gathering of conservatives here Saturday that the right needs to provide a smart, prudent and constructive opposition to President Obama, opposing him on some issues, engaging him on others, and accepting even tiny victories when they present themselves.

Ryan said conservatives should not be baited into “playing the villain” against Obama in the president's second term, or driven to distraction by him.

"We can’t get rattled,” he said.

And he echoed a line of attack that some other Republicans have made in recent days, that the White House is out to “delegitimize” the GOP opposition in order to implement its second-term agenda. (House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday accused Obama of seeking to “annihilate” the GOP).

“He wants to perpetuate progressive government for at least a generation. Why? Because he thinks that's the right thing to do,” Ryan said of Obama Saturday.

“To do that he needs to delegitimize the Republican Party and House Republicans in particular. He’ll try to divide us with phony emergencies and bogus deals. He’ll try to get us to fight with each other – to question each other’s motives – so we don’t challenge him … We can’t let that happen. We have to be smart."

Ryan said: “I’m not saying we should be excessively cautious. When we see an opening however small we should take it.”

Ryan said if the party offers a serious alternative agenda, it will be in position to win back the White House because the results of the president’s policies “will fall far short of the rhetoric, and they won’t be pretty.”

Ryan was a featured speaker at the National Review Summit, an annual conference whose theme this year is “The Future of Conservatism.”

Gov. Scott Walker is speaking at the same event later today.

About Craig Gilbert

Craig Gilbert is the Journal Sentinel's Washington Bureau Chief and writes the Wisconsin Voter blog about politics and elections.